Advance photo/Michael McWeeneyDetectives and members of the city Medical Examiner's office investigate a patch of brush at the foot of Seaview Avenue at Capodanno Boulevard, where a body was discovered by children playing in the area. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The human body discovered near the boardwalk in Ocean Breeze yesterday afternoon may have been dead for as many as six months, a police source said today.

The body — which authorities believe may belong to a homeless man — had started decomposing, the source said.

As of today, police have not yet identified the man, and are waiting for the results of a DNA test, the source said.

A spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner’s office said today that the man’s cause of death has not been determined, and requires further study.

Even so, police and law enforcement sources stressed that investigators don’t believe foul play was involved.

One law enforcement source said some pill bottles were found near the body.

The body was found at 3:11 p.m. yesterday, in the thick brush between the foot of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk and Capodanno Boulevard, close to its intersection with Seaview Avenue.

The brush sits near the site of the Freedom Circle memorial and a fenced-in construction yard used by the city Parks Department to store some digital signs and a backhoe.